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Avivando delfines. Dolphin Stoking. How to meet, greet and stoke a dolphin megapod. People and Dolphins come together in the big blue offshore Osa peninsula, Costa RIca. Offshore Osa is the only place where this kind of thing is known and these dolphins need protection from nets and lines and hooks. Right?

Why is it called a dolphin orgy? See in this video from offshore Osa peninsula, Costa RIca. These dolphins need an area free of nets and lines to continue to mix their genes and grow culture. Osa may be the biggest dolphin orgy spot in the world. Let the dolphin festival swim on, no canned tuna, no shrimp, protect dolphin waters from the nets and lines that crash their party every day. Only Offshore Osa

The blue-water pelagic ecosystem offshore of southwestern Costa
Rica’s Isla del Caño Biological Reserve and Corcovado National Park took
serious one-two punches during the past few months, and it remains to
be seen whether things will ever return to conditions of the past. The
area around, not inside, the two protected areas is probably Costa
Rica’s most critical dolphin and whale breeding and feeding waters. But
the whales are gone, and the dolphins have changed. The fishing has been
off, and boats are headed elsewhere to find fish.

The first few months of the year shaped up to be one of the
best seasons for marine life in Costa Rican waters in recent memory. The
cool currents of La Niña stoked a profusion of big pelagic species like
dolphins, whales, tuna, turtles and giant mantas. Divers and snorkelers
from the Southern Zone reported more giant mantas seen at Caño Island
in February and March than in the past 15 years put together. Flights
and boats searching for marine life in the area were finding dolphin
superpods, groups of dolphins numbering in the hundreds to thousands,
all over the area. There were many mating and birthing humpback whales, a
large pod of false killer whales, orcas, fin whales and even three blue
whales, including a baby, feeding on giant bait balls of small fish
brought up from the depths during the normal strong upwelling at this
time of year. There were uncountable hectares of turtles, tuna and
billfish. There were even a few big sharks.

Then, a giant foreign
ship showed up and began drilling deep holes in the ocean floor not far
from Caño Island, in the name of scientific research. Within a day, the
whales were gone. Search time for dolphins from a plane went from a half
hour or less to two hours or more. Most dolphin superpods broke into
smaller groups and headed north toward offshore Quepos. Others broke
into smaller groups and moved inshore, closer to the coast. Dolphins
that stayed in the area developed a strange skin rash.

The spewing
ship kept at it for a month. Great areas of waters turned from marine
blue to metallic brown and green. The day after the ship left, a new one
showed up towing many kilometers of giant air guns blasting extremely
loud sounds repetitively. A week later they were still at it. Drake Bay
ecotourism and sportfishing boats foolish enough to still be looking in
their favorite hot spots were told to leave the area by burly men on a
yacht out of Quepos. Scuba divers at Caño Island could hear the giant
booms of the guns during their dives.

No environmental impact
study was done for the area. No dolphin and whale observers were onboard
to look out for cetacean safety. There were no Costa Ricans onboard
until someone noticed. Many questions were never answered. No notice was
given to area residents of what was going to happen.

Since the
drilling, no whales have been reported in the area – the longest period
without whale sightings that anglers and guides in Drake Bay can
remember. No large dolphin superpods have been seen. The fishing is bad.
No wonder so few tourists seem to want to visit the area right now.

This
serious lack of ocean oversight has left locals wondering what is next.
There are reports of making a permanent drilling riser here and of
laying an undersea cable from the mainland to Caño Island and then
offshore to the rig.

Let’s hope an environmental impact study is
involved and that locals dependent on the area’s marine life are given
some notice so they can find new jobs. Because what’s next could be the
knockout punch for a good chunk of Costa Rica’s famous marine life:
whales, dolphins, turtles – and fishers and divers.

Email costacetacea@gmail.com with contributions to The Big Blue, or check out www.costacetacea.com for more information.

Check out this very informative article by Nora M. and O about gold on the Osa that was published the day after our last blog post about gold in the ocean offshore of Osa, Costa Rica. Guess Crocodile Bay is pretty well informed about gold on the Osa. Except they left out any underwater history. We are hoping for another post about the history of gold on the Osa underwater from these gold experts.

Recent research on Hawaiian spinner
dolphins indicates that they need protected times and places.
Surprise! One bay is visited by as many as sixty swimmers at a time
who try to play with a small group of dolphins. Seems the dolphins
rest in the early daylight hours, and that’s when many swimmer
tourists head out. Less dolphins may come into the bay and the
dolphins might leave earlier than usual when too many people show up.
Spinners in Hawaii rest in small groups near shore in shallow sandy
bays near deep water. Scientists say these places need protection.
Clearly tourists should be told to leave the dolphins alone in the
early daylight hours and fishing and extraction should be stopped in
the bays. Costa Rican dolphins should have it so good.

Costa Rican spinner dolphins deal with
giant nets towed by ships, helicopters dropping bombs, long lines
full of hooks, shrimp trawlers bulldozing the bottom, surprise drill
ships making a big mess, big banging seismic surveys, cargo ships
blitzing by, sport fishers plowing through the pod with lines and
hooks, tourist boats gawking, and even some divers in the water. How
do you think that effects their beauty sleep?

Don't forget here in Costa Rica spinner
dolphins have no protected place at all.

Costa Rican spinner and spotted
dolphins, who also rest in the early daylight, need tourists to leave
them alone at this time. Sport fishing boats need to stop fishing in
the dolphins as they particularly like the early hours of the day.
Many hotel managers want tours to leave early to get everyone out of
the hotel, but this is the wrong strategy if you are concerned about
dolphins. Tourist operators like divers and fishers should put up on
their web pages that they leave the dolphins alone in the am. Guests
of Costa Cetacea over the years will recall that all tours leave late
and respect the dolphins rest time, much to the frustration of some
hotel managers. The interactions here in Costa Rica are much more
interesting in the PM anyway.

Aloha to the Hawaiians for once again
being the world ocean leaders. Lets hope Costa Rica follows.

A great example of the kooky world of catch and release fishing. Some
would add the word sport before fishing but that would be too funny for
this blog. By the way, she was going to let it go after she could get
it high enough our of the water,but, but, oh well. What a noble and
goal oriented activity. Most fish do not die after being released, at
least not right away that anybody is seeing, so say the catch and
releasers. But still, must release fish cause, cause, otherwise they
might disappear faster than they already are. And then what would we
catch and release?

Check out the article on this momentous occasion.And take a look a the most popular comments. Does anyone think of this kind of fishing as sport? Seems most see it as a senseless waste for a fleeting ego tour, not eco tour. The Huff Post put it under Weird. Costa Rica toursim people take note. Its time to release catch and release. If the fish is in so endangered you feel you need to release it, target something else. And bring it home for sushi.